Vietnam Veteran Gives Soldiers a Hero's Welcome
Night or day, Walt Peters waits in welcome and greets returning soldiers on the tarmac at Hunter Army Air Field, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.
His face is the first they see setting foot again at the military installation near Savannah.
Peters greets soldiers and was often the last face they saw leaving a year or so earlier.
"Everyone has a gift for something," says Peters. "I'm hoping my gift is giving back something to my country, and that honoring our soldiers as they come and go."
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Since 2004, Peters estimates he has greeted nearly 90,000 soldiers.
Nearly blind, he can't see them. But, in them he can see himself, 40 years younger.
Sgt. Walt Peters served three tours in Vietnam. And in that divisive war, came home to scorn.
"I had rotten tomatoes thrown at me, paint, you name it." Peters recalls. "It was my hell. By giving a soldier a flag and shaking his hand, that's my heaven. Simple as that."
This time 297 soldiers came home, members of the Third Combat Aviation Brigade, part of the 3rd Infantry Division back from Afghanistan.
Team Stewart
Savannah Red Cross
Peters and his volunteers offered all of them a U.S. flag, and another taste of America: hot coffee.
To Sergeant Jean Yarbrough, it was the best cup ever.
"Even though it's not espresso, it's got the love in it," Yarbrough said.
"We get to have coffee and homemade goodies," Yarbrough said to Peters.
"That's right," Peters told Yarbrough. "You see the idea of it is we wanted to give you the hero's welcome home. Because you are my hero, girl."
Inside the hangar, families waited, and Peters got ready to step aside for the special moment when they saw that their soldier was home safe at last.
To Peters, it's the homecoming they deserve.
The one he always wanted.
